Wildfire Surviving Red Serge Framed by Wood Buffalo RCMP

Red serge Wood Buffalo RCMP sent to be framed by Mounted Police Art in Red Deer // Picture courtesy of John Van Mulligen

A red serge, that was the only item retrievable item from Constable Ramy Aoueiss’ burnt down home in Parsons Creek, is now being hung in the Wood Buffalo RCMP detachment.

Constable Aoueiss, like so many, lost his home after the room he was renting was destroyed in the 2016 wildfire.

After returning and going through the debris – he was able to find the jacket “in the middle of all the black and grey.”

“It was kind of surreal, it was the only thing we retrieved from the house,” Aoueiss told Mix News.

“The one closet we had, that had all my clothes – the metal bar, where the hangers were on, had fallen on the ground, the hangers had melted and a few clothes were still there and the red serge was the only thing we retrieved from the entire house.”

The jacket was slightly damaged from the smoke but survived the entire blaze.

Over the next year and a half, Aoueiss kept it on his desk at the detachment.

When he was transferred to Quebec, he donated the serge to his boss.

“I just told my boss, my red serge is still alive, it’s been sitting on my desk – I was undecided what the best option was for it and I thought it didn’t belong in a house.”

The detachment recently sent the serge to the Mounted Police Art in Red Deer – where they’ve since framed the jacket for the Mounties to hang up in their building.

Aoueiss feels this “memorabilia” needed to stay in Fort McMurray.

“In five, ten years, people move and people get transferred and no one who was there for the family won’t be there and I find it’s a piece of the fire and our experience there.”

He says he doesn’t know exactly where the framed serge will be hung but notes he will have to one day come back and see it.